> I've been thinking about that lately, since I've been listening to some Stockhausen. What's the argument?
You can read it here - the essay itself starts on page 47 and it's not very long.
http://www.chinesenewear.com/gno/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/cardew_stockhausen.pdf
In a nutshell (- and I merely report, you decide):
"Stockhausen’s Refrain, the piece I have been asked to talk about, is a part of the cultural superstructure of the largest-scale system of human oppression and exploitation the world has ever known: imperialism. The way to attacking the heart of that system is through attacking the manifestations of that system, not only the emanations from the American war machine in Vietnam, not only the emanations from Stockhausen’s mind, but also the infesations of this system in our own minds, as deep-rooted wrong ideas."
He quotes the famous passage from the Contribution to the Critique... "In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will..." etc (though he actually quotes it from "Lenin's pamphlet entitled 'Karl Marx'"), to introduce the idea of the superstructure as a reflection of the base. Marx didn't live to see imperialism but Lenin accurately described it as 'the highest stage of capitalism'. The culture of this stage of capitalism is thus a reflection of imperialism. The bourgeoisie is the ruling class so capitalist culture is bourgeois culture, but the bourgeoisie has become degenerate in this, the imperialist last stage of capitalism - which in fact is now collapsing. "Today, in the period of the collapse of imperialism any pretensions to artistic genius are a sham."
The ruling class is fighting to stave off collapse. On the "musical front", the avant garde is the expression of the collapse of imperialism, and the ruling class does not want the public's attention drawn to it. But to shut it down would be counterproductive, so it is cultivated as the "concern of a tiny clique". Genius is allowed to work in the avant garde, especially when it embraces anti-socialistic ideologies like anarchism and mysticism. Meanwhile, the ruling class pacifies the working class with pop music on the one hand, which brings in profits, and the classical and romantic music of bourgeois culture in its prime on the other, which advertises that 'bourgeois is best'.
"In other words, the ruling class maintains its domination over the working people by telling lies and distorting the truth. The purpose of ideological struggle is to expose these lies and distortions. You now have the opportunity to hear Stockhausen’s Refrain. I’ve exposed the true character of the piece as part of the superstructure of imperialism. I’ve shown that it promotes a mystical world outlook which is an ally of imperialism and an enemy of the working and oppressed people of the world. If in the light of all this it still retains any shred of attractiveness, compare it with other manifestations of imperialism today: the British Army in Ireland, the mass of unemployed, for example. Here the brutal character of imperialism is evident. Any beauty that may be detected in Refrain is merely cosmetic, not even skin-deep.
"You might ask: Should I now switch off and protect myself from such ideas by not listening? Well, yes, by all means, that wouldn’t be a bad thing in itself. But in the general context these ideas are too widely promoted to be ignored. They must be confronted and their essence grasped. They must be subjected to fierce criticism and a resolute stand taken against them."